NEIL LENNON has said the best is yet to come from his Celtic side after blasting seven goals past Estonian champions Nomme Kalju over the two legs of their Champions League qualifying tie.
A much-changed Celtic side ran out comfortable winners in the second leg of the tie in Tallinn last night as an own goal and a late strike by Marian Shved set up a third qualifying round clash against Romanian outfit CFR Cluj.
And Lennon believes his team are ready to show that they are good enough to reach the group stages of the competition, despite the doubts of those who believe that Celtic have regressed since he replaced Brendan Rodgers as manager.
READ MORE: Celtic v Nomme Kalju: Five things from Champions League qualifier
“I can’t comment on what other people are saying about the team but so far we’ve won 5-2 over Sarajevo and now 7-0, I don’t think the players can give me any more,” Lennon said.
“They have been absolutely excellent, and I think there’s more to come from them.
“We’re still not where we really want to be in terms of match fitness and match sharpness but we’re in a good place and we look at threat and that’s very pleasing.
“I am very happy with the scoreline and the performance and with the scoreline over the two legs.
“I am happy to get important minutes into the legs of some of the players who haven’t had that luxury so far. We are injury free and the tie was always going to be a little bit different psychologically because of the lead that we had.
“I thought we had very good control of the game and scoring the early goal was very important.
“It set a good mentality and attitude towards the game and showed we were not just here to fulfil a fixture. We are very pleased with the attitude and comprehensive performance we showed.
“I thought we had a very tough tie against Sarajevo in the opening tie and we negotiated that very well. We are two or three weeks fitter down the line and obviously we have negotiated this qualifying round brilliantly, so we are in a good place at the minute. But as you go along in the qualifying campaign the quality does get stronger.
“Cluj are a very experienced side with an experienced manager, but we’ll cross that bridge when it comes. We’ve had them watched in both ties, so we will be well prepared for next week. Winning tonight keeps the momentum going into the domestic campaign on Saturday.”
Lennon was particularly pleased to give players who have yet to see a lot of action during the summer a run-out, praising debutants Christopher Jullien and Marian Shved along with Boli Bolingoli and the returning Olivier Ntcham.
“[I was] very pleased for Christopher,” he said. “It was important he got 90 minutes because he is not going to play at the weekend and I was delighted with him, I thought he was outstanding.
“I was pleased with Bolingoli I thought he had a great game, he looked more assured, more powerful, stronger, like the player we thought we had. I was delighted with Ntcham I thought he was outstanding. And then Marian comes on. He’s had a little bit of a frustrating time with the groin injury, but he got a good 25 minutes under his belt and obviously took a lot of confidence from the first chance, which he probably should have scored, and then scoring a great goal to wrap up the tie.
“You could see what the goal meant to him you have to remember he’s still only 22 and coming into a new culture. I was very, very pleased, that will give him a huge shot in the arm confidence wise.”
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